FEC commissioner calls on Trump to provide evidence to support voter fraud claim

By Rebecca Shabad

February 10, 2017 / 6:21 PM
/ CBS News

A commissioner on the Federal Election Commission called on President Trump Friday to provide evidence that backs up his reported claim that a widespread voter fraud scheme was committed in New Hampshire in the 2016 election.

In a statement, Ellen L. Weintraub alluded to reports published Friday that say Mr. Trump has alleged that a voter fraud scheme occurred and that as a result, he lost the state in the election, as did incumbent GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte.

“The scheme the president of the United States alleges would constitute thousands of felony criminal offenses under New Hampshire law,” Weintraub said in her statement. “The president has issued an extraordinarily serious and specific charge. Allegations of this magnitude cannot be ignored,” she said.

Weintraub then said that she calls on the president to “immediately share his evidence with the public and with the appropriate law-enforcement authorities so that his allegations may be investigated promptly and thoroughly.”

The commissioner, who was a recess appointment by President George W. Bush in 2002, was referring to reports by Politico and The Associated Press Friday. Politico reported that Mr. Trump told a group of 10 senators a day earlier that he and Ayotte would have won in New Hampshire last year if it weren’t for the “thousands” of people who were “brought in on buses” from Massachusetts to vote illegally in their neighboring state.

This is not the first time Mr. Trump has made such a serious claim about voter fraud in the election last year without citing any evidence. Last month, he falsely claimed that three to five million people illegally voted in November.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last weekend that he doesn’t think any federal funding should be used to subsidize any investigation that President Trump calls for into voter fraud in the 2016 election.